Rainbow cupcake
What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; green sugar sprinkles (or use green frosting); metal star tip and pastry bag (or snip end of plastic sandwich bag); Airheads Extreme sour belt; chocolate or plastic coins.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with green sugar. Use star tip to make two clouds on either side of the cupcake. Arrange rainbow candy to arch between the two clouds. Add coins to one end.
Green jelly bean cupcake
What You Need: 1 cupcake; green icing (I used Pillsbury’s holiday frosting); green sugar or sprinkles; green jellybeans (or go smaller with Jelly Bellys).
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with or dip in green sugar. Add jelly beans.
You can make great St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes without any fancy fondant or funky tools other than a small, heart-shaped cutter. The secret is gumdrops. (However, we do have easy tips on fondant clover cupcakes, too.)
What You Need: 1 cupcake; white icing; a few large green gumdrops or spice drops; rolling pin or glass; small, heart-shaped cookie cutter; scissors or kitchen shears; a bit of flour or powdered (confectioner’s) sugar.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Flatten gumdrop to about one-quarter inch in height by rolling them with a rolling pin or the edge of a glass. Put a little flour or powdered sugar on the surface and roller if the gumdrops stick too much. Dip heart cutter in flour or powdered sugar to keep it from sticking and cut out 3 heart shapes. Use scissors, knife or spatula to cut small stem for clover. Arrange parts on cupcake.
These easy St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes don’t require any special decorating tips or techniques, just mini M&Ms and some foil-wrapped chocolate coins.
What You Need: 1 cupcake; white, green or blue icing; mini M&Ms in various rainbow colors; chocolate coins.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Leaving a little space at the right edge for coins, arrange mini M&Ms in an arched rainbow. Add chocolate coins.
These clover-shaped cupcakes will be the hit of the St. Patrick’s Day party, as everyone asks, “How’d you do that?” Well, it’s easy.
What You Need: Cupcake batter; paper liners (with shamrocks if you’d like!); marbles or balled-up aluminum foil; green icing; toothpick.
How to Make It: Fill muffin tin with paper liners. Fill each liner about half-full with batter. If you fill them too full, the batter will spill over and your cupcakes won’t look like shamrocks. (You may have to experiment a bit.) Now, slip 3 marbles, equally spaced, between the paper liner and the inside bottom of the muffin tin. Bake as usual, but check frequently. Also, don’t burn yourself, as the marbles get pretty hot! Once the cupcakes cool, frost them with green icing and use a toothpick to draw leaf “veins.” Or, use green writing icing. Add a green candy stem (we used Sour Punch green apple straws).
Been wanting to try fondant on your cupcakes? These simple St. Patrick’s Day four-leaf clovers are a great place to start. You can place the shamrock on top of a buttercream-frosted cupcake like we did, or cover the entire cupcake with fondant. To learn more, visit our using fondant with cupcakes page.
What You Need: 1 cupcake; white icing; green fondant (or tint white fondant green using gel food coloring); small heart-shaped cutter; rolling pin; mat or other clean surface; spatula or knife.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Roll out fondant about 1/4 inch thick. Cut four hearts with cutter. (Dip cutter in powdered sugar first if it’s sticking.) Cut small strip of fondant for stem using spatula or knife. Arrange on cupcake.
Make quick clovers for St. Patrick’s Day and your cupcakes will have the luck of the Irish. Enjoy them with a shamrock shake.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); white frosting; green mini M&Ms (or regular for larger shamrocks); strands of green sour candy.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange M&Ms in groups of 3. Snip or cut off short lengths of sour candy to make stems and add to cupcake.
